I remember watching this movie back when it first came out and I didn't think it was that bad. I just finished watching the cartoon series on Netflix and I figured I would re-watch this to wrap it all up. Now I wish I hadn't watched it. It's NOTHING like the show. I wonder if the people who worked on this movie even saw the show. Stay away from this movie. It's so bad that it actually hurts to watch it.
1,746 Reviews
M. Night Shameonyouman.....
FlashCallahan13 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Wow.
In the years of movie-going i have endured, every year there is one film that gets damned by the critics and film goers alike (Battlefield Earth, The Avengers), ans i have always found them rather endearing.
The dreadful scripts, the hammy acting and the non-existent narrative all make a bad movie....somewhat appealing.
So I was sadistically looking forward to this movie. And despite the fact I found the movie the funniest i've seen in a while (the word bender is slang for homosexual where I am from), it's truly a monstrosity of a turkey.
Because i've never seen the animated series it's based on, I thought it was because of this, but as an hour felt like a week, it was the dire pacing and story Shyalaman has chucked at the screen.
I have never seen a director fall from such spectacular grace, like this man has.
Ten years ago, his films were sometihng that would awe-inspire the masses, now, he has made himself a laughing stock.
The film makes no sense at all, and we are forced to watch some of the worst acting and badly choreographed fight scenes ever to grace such a high budgeted event movie.
The effects are okay, but effects do not make a movie, and going from one set piece to another, watching fire fight ice and wind, isn't entertaining.
In the years of movie-going i have endured, every year there is one film that gets damned by the critics and film goers alike (Battlefield Earth, The Avengers), ans i have always found them rather endearing.
The dreadful scripts, the hammy acting and the non-existent narrative all make a bad movie....somewhat appealing.
So I was sadistically looking forward to this movie. And despite the fact I found the movie the funniest i've seen in a while (the word bender is slang for homosexual where I am from), it's truly a monstrosity of a turkey.
Because i've never seen the animated series it's based on, I thought it was because of this, but as an hour felt like a week, it was the dire pacing and story Shyalaman has chucked at the screen.
I have never seen a director fall from such spectacular grace, like this man has.
Ten years ago, his films were sometihng that would awe-inspire the masses, now, he has made himself a laughing stock.
The film makes no sense at all, and we are forced to watch some of the worst acting and badly choreographed fight scenes ever to grace such a high budgeted event movie.
The effects are okay, but effects do not make a movie, and going from one set piece to another, watching fire fight ice and wind, isn't entertaining.
glad i didn't pay
wazzaa-129 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
To say this film is a mess is an understatement but watch the original series then this and you'll understand why every fan hates this movie.
important plot sequences are left out and one of the most important characters avatar Roku isn't even there, not that it had to be a scene by scene remake of the cartoon to be good, but i don't see how they expect to do another movie with so Many gaps in the story, in this movie Aang or unng as he's miscalled should have the power to defeat the fire nation by himself now after the north pole victory, in the cartoon he merged with the ocean spirit something he couldn't repeat.
and thats just the tip of the iceberg, apart from plot holes there's bad acting terrible special fx and it's in 3D which i hate in Any movie don't waste your time it sucks.
blame the director M Night Shyamalan i do, anyone els could have done better.
If you are a big fan of Avatar the last air bender series, then don't watch this You will be annoyed from the beginning.
important plot sequences are left out and one of the most important characters avatar Roku isn't even there, not that it had to be a scene by scene remake of the cartoon to be good, but i don't see how they expect to do another movie with so Many gaps in the story, in this movie Aang or unng as he's miscalled should have the power to defeat the fire nation by himself now after the north pole victory, in the cartoon he merged with the ocean spirit something he couldn't repeat.
and thats just the tip of the iceberg, apart from plot holes there's bad acting terrible special fx and it's in 3D which i hate in Any movie don't waste your time it sucks.
blame the director M Night Shyamalan i do, anyone els could have done better.
If you are a big fan of Avatar the last air bender series, then don't watch this You will be annoyed from the beginning.
An Absolute Disgrace to the Series
mebulloch-6246727 May 2020
I watched this reluctantly for the first time recently to see if it was bad as I had heard and I was wrong, it was even worse than I could have imagined. I was unable to even finish the movie. I wish I could rate it lower. I understand that adaptations are difficult to reflect in the same light as the original content but the direction style, casting, writing, acting, and animation of this movie was lazy, disrespectful, and devalued the core ideals of the series. The movie proves painful to watch. I grew up watching the series and still now as an adult I am still constantly in awe of how wonderful of a show it is. So I wholeheartedly recommend to forget you even laid eyes on this movie and go watch the series in all it's glory.
An 8 year old's assessment
mckee-783-6211926 July 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I would like to share my son's review. He just turned 8 and dictated as his dad typed:
I just hate it so bad!!!
I'm a HUGE fan of the the cartoons. I have the whole series, including Water, Earth and Fire.
It was a HUGE disappointment because even by the time I saw the commercial, I knew it would be completely crushing!
I mean, the characters! Iroh was the greatest disappointment. He was not kind and wise enough. And also he was not old enough.
And why can't they say anyone's name right!???
I thought it was completely disrespectful to put the characters skin colors the opposite.
After the first twenty minutes of it I was bored already but I have to say the effects were decent.
And the Avatar did not have enough happiness in him! I think it's important to the movie. Aang is the main character of the movie, and he should at least get a little more happiness inside of him!
When I got home that night I had to watch the cartoon series for some time to completely forget about the movie!
And... actually, I'm watching it right now!
If anybody wanted to see this movie I would suggest they close their eyes and ears!!!
*********************
Dad's two cents:
My son became interested in Avatar the Last Air Bender, the animated series at age 4.
I bought him the entire series on DVD as soon as the episodes were available and he and I devoured every episode, again and again.
Compared to the magnificently crafted animated series, I'd have to say the live action movie was an abysmal embarrassment, a sophomoric and vapid display of ignorance.
Go rent or buy the animated series instead. I think it's some of the best fiction ever written for children. It's incredible. It's an epic parable dealing with sophisticated philosophical, cultural, emotional and spiritual issues which have plagued human civilization since the emergence of reason. And it does it with lightheartedness and joy. The theme deals with no less than issues of greed, power, spirituality, and the formation of identity and moral values. It grapples with the ideals of pacifism. It teaches teamwork, compassion, empathy and humility. It exemplifies wisdom and the appreciation of art, nature and connectedness - connectedness to each other, to nature, to animals, to the universe, and emphasizes detachment from possession. The story line traverses goofy playfulness, tween and young teen crushes and love, family power dynamics, friendship, mental illness, and gut wrenching loss. And it's an incredible primer for Eastern spiritual ideals and mythology.
But these things can't be achieved effectively without superb craftsmanship. So beautifully wrought is this story that the fun, action and struggles are adeptly punctuated with moving poignancy.
The live action version is NONE of these things. No insight, no depth of character, only the most cursory references of some of the core thematic values of the animated series, and those done so poorly as to come off as just... pathetically trite.
The thing I find most upsetting regarding the failure of this movie to deliver is that the original animated series covers all of what I find to be the best of Eastern culture, and we Westerners need to understand these things in this global community. Buddhist and Confucian ideals and philosophies are front and center and, in my mind, are the greatest gifts the East has to offer the world, and the very things that are most clearly in danger of vanishing in the face of the West's insignificant obsession with material gain and conspicuous consumption.
And another thing, too. It's typical that this story was handled on the level it was - dismissively. Adults appear to be largely disinterested in the profound turmoil in which children are engaged as they enter their teens. They are forming their value systems, they are trying to reconcile reality with fantasy and desire. They are trying to find the balance between selfishness and empathy. They are finding what it means to be themselves, members of a community, and a species on the planet. They are in agony grappling with issues we were happy to leave behind. But these struggles are never truly resolved, and our ideas of who we are and how we fit in the world cannot remain fixed, and, yet, when they are challenged, we adults consider ourselves to be in a state of crisis, when that is the perpetual state of being of a young teen. And I would argue it's a state of flux that we should never leave, that we should always be questioning ourselves, our figures of authority, and our place in the world and in relation to those around us. I do not see these struggles as juvenile, but human, and the animated series brings all these struggles to mind. Sadly, the movie did little to bring the richness of these struggles to life.
In my most critical mood, I would say this failure is deeply offensive to my sensibilities as a human being.
But on the other hand, not everyone has the depth of vision and creative genius to pull off what admittedly would be a very challenging feat. I just wish I could see what David Lean could have done with this story.
I just hate it so bad!!!
I'm a HUGE fan of the the cartoons. I have the whole series, including Water, Earth and Fire.
It was a HUGE disappointment because even by the time I saw the commercial, I knew it would be completely crushing!
I mean, the characters! Iroh was the greatest disappointment. He was not kind and wise enough. And also he was not old enough.
And why can't they say anyone's name right!???
I thought it was completely disrespectful to put the characters skin colors the opposite.
After the first twenty minutes of it I was bored already but I have to say the effects were decent.
And the Avatar did not have enough happiness in him! I think it's important to the movie. Aang is the main character of the movie, and he should at least get a little more happiness inside of him!
When I got home that night I had to watch the cartoon series for some time to completely forget about the movie!
And... actually, I'm watching it right now!
If anybody wanted to see this movie I would suggest they close their eyes and ears!!!
*********************
Dad's two cents:
My son became interested in Avatar the Last Air Bender, the animated series at age 4.
I bought him the entire series on DVD as soon as the episodes were available and he and I devoured every episode, again and again.
Compared to the magnificently crafted animated series, I'd have to say the live action movie was an abysmal embarrassment, a sophomoric and vapid display of ignorance.
Go rent or buy the animated series instead. I think it's some of the best fiction ever written for children. It's incredible. It's an epic parable dealing with sophisticated philosophical, cultural, emotional and spiritual issues which have plagued human civilization since the emergence of reason. And it does it with lightheartedness and joy. The theme deals with no less than issues of greed, power, spirituality, and the formation of identity and moral values. It grapples with the ideals of pacifism. It teaches teamwork, compassion, empathy and humility. It exemplifies wisdom and the appreciation of art, nature and connectedness - connectedness to each other, to nature, to animals, to the universe, and emphasizes detachment from possession. The story line traverses goofy playfulness, tween and young teen crushes and love, family power dynamics, friendship, mental illness, and gut wrenching loss. And it's an incredible primer for Eastern spiritual ideals and mythology.
But these things can't be achieved effectively without superb craftsmanship. So beautifully wrought is this story that the fun, action and struggles are adeptly punctuated with moving poignancy.
The live action version is NONE of these things. No insight, no depth of character, only the most cursory references of some of the core thematic values of the animated series, and those done so poorly as to come off as just... pathetically trite.
The thing I find most upsetting regarding the failure of this movie to deliver is that the original animated series covers all of what I find to be the best of Eastern culture, and we Westerners need to understand these things in this global community. Buddhist and Confucian ideals and philosophies are front and center and, in my mind, are the greatest gifts the East has to offer the world, and the very things that are most clearly in danger of vanishing in the face of the West's insignificant obsession with material gain and conspicuous consumption.
And another thing, too. It's typical that this story was handled on the level it was - dismissively. Adults appear to be largely disinterested in the profound turmoil in which children are engaged as they enter their teens. They are forming their value systems, they are trying to reconcile reality with fantasy and desire. They are trying to find the balance between selfishness and empathy. They are finding what it means to be themselves, members of a community, and a species on the planet. They are in agony grappling with issues we were happy to leave behind. But these struggles are never truly resolved, and our ideas of who we are and how we fit in the world cannot remain fixed, and, yet, when they are challenged, we adults consider ourselves to be in a state of crisis, when that is the perpetual state of being of a young teen. And I would argue it's a state of flux that we should never leave, that we should always be questioning ourselves, our figures of authority, and our place in the world and in relation to those around us. I do not see these struggles as juvenile, but human, and the animated series brings all these struggles to mind. Sadly, the movie did little to bring the richness of these struggles to life.
In my most critical mood, I would say this failure is deeply offensive to my sensibilities as a human being.
But on the other hand, not everyone has the depth of vision and creative genius to pull off what admittedly would be a very challenging feat. I just wish I could see what David Lean could have done with this story.
Self-important, stiff, clunky, dull and lacking any sort of spark or flair
bob the moo13 March 2011
The world is divided into four kingdoms with each being able to control (bend) an element to their will. These benders (stop tittering at the back) are held in balance by the influence of the Avatar, a being who can control all elements as well as being a link to the spirit world. It has been 100 years since this Avatar vanished and in this time the various benders (stop it) have all been in conflict. The wars have been led by the flaming benders (seriously, stop it) who control fire and wiped out the air benders because they knew the Avatar was one of their number. With the air benders gone and the Avatar nowhere to be found, the benders are all under the thumb of the fire nation, with bending outlawed (like it used to be in the Isle of Man). When sibling waterbenders Katara and Sokka discover a child frozen below the waters near their town they rescue him only to quickly learn he is the Avatar. They join him in his quest to learn to be bend the other elements and also free the kingdoms from the tyranny of the fire nation.
I've not watched the original series so in a way I came to this film free of the built-in criticism of those who love the series and were always going to be upset by a poor copy. Normally this would mean that a poor version might still be a good film but obviously in this case I did come with the knowledge that it had been universally slated by critics and mostly ignored by audiences. So basically I had no preconceptions of how the film should look or be but at the same time my expectations were low due to all the criticism I had heard. So I guess it is understandable that I come out of the film saying "c'mon – it's not THAT bad" because it is not the crime against humanity that some have suggested. The effects are pretty decent and as a result some of the sequences are decent if only on a technical level. And. And. Well, I guess I'm done providing the critical balance here, so onto the parts of the film that are not the "pretty good" effects.
Sadly this "rest of the film" is the vast majority of the two hour running time and it is pretty poor. Maybe the plot has potential but from the evidence of this it is a terrible heavy mess of mythology and nonsense that might have struggled to works in the hands of someone really able. M. Night Shyamalan is not an able person – he is someone who appears to have had a couple of good ideas (Sixth Sense and Unbreakable), a couple of so-so films and then a growing collections of stinkers, in which camp this film belongs. In the hands of Shyamalan it is overly worthy, clunky, self-important and just a big bore full of gas. It is no surprise that within this frame he has written dialogue that is equally pompous with lots of terribly stiff lines which are almost a pain to listen to. As director he fails his cast. The adults seem to have enough about them to at least have presence but the younger cast members seem totally lost in terms of what they are doing and are painfully stiff and have no presence. As a director of action he is lacking as well; OK he handles the effects well but the fights lack tension and excitement and just seem silly most of the time. To those that say that the action sequences were cool then I would suggest you check out the countless martial arts films that do them better, with actual excitement and impressive director and choreography – because those on display here are a poor copy of the genre.
Overall, it comes to something when the best that one can say about a film is that it is not the abomination that he majority say it is. However this is not me saying it is good; because I'm not; because it's not; not at all. It is clunky, stiff, self-important and lacks any sense of adventure, fun, character or charm – it is frankly a bore. I could care less if Shyamalan has upset fans of the original series with his version – he could have done that and still presented the rest of us with a decent film – but he hasn't He can get shirty with journalists who ask him about the downward trajectory of his career but ultimately he is doing nothing to suggest it is headed any other direction – The Last Airbender is not the worst film ever made, but it certainly another in the growing pile of stinkers that has his Shyamalan's name attached to them.
I've not watched the original series so in a way I came to this film free of the built-in criticism of those who love the series and were always going to be upset by a poor copy. Normally this would mean that a poor version might still be a good film but obviously in this case I did come with the knowledge that it had been universally slated by critics and mostly ignored by audiences. So basically I had no preconceptions of how the film should look or be but at the same time my expectations were low due to all the criticism I had heard. So I guess it is understandable that I come out of the film saying "c'mon – it's not THAT bad" because it is not the crime against humanity that some have suggested. The effects are pretty decent and as a result some of the sequences are decent if only on a technical level. And. And. Well, I guess I'm done providing the critical balance here, so onto the parts of the film that are not the "pretty good" effects.
Sadly this "rest of the film" is the vast majority of the two hour running time and it is pretty poor. Maybe the plot has potential but from the evidence of this it is a terrible heavy mess of mythology and nonsense that might have struggled to works in the hands of someone really able. M. Night Shyamalan is not an able person – he is someone who appears to have had a couple of good ideas (Sixth Sense and Unbreakable), a couple of so-so films and then a growing collections of stinkers, in which camp this film belongs. In the hands of Shyamalan it is overly worthy, clunky, self-important and just a big bore full of gas. It is no surprise that within this frame he has written dialogue that is equally pompous with lots of terribly stiff lines which are almost a pain to listen to. As director he fails his cast. The adults seem to have enough about them to at least have presence but the younger cast members seem totally lost in terms of what they are doing and are painfully stiff and have no presence. As a director of action he is lacking as well; OK he handles the effects well but the fights lack tension and excitement and just seem silly most of the time. To those that say that the action sequences were cool then I would suggest you check out the countless martial arts films that do them better, with actual excitement and impressive director and choreography – because those on display here are a poor copy of the genre.
Overall, it comes to something when the best that one can say about a film is that it is not the abomination that he majority say it is. However this is not me saying it is good; because I'm not; because it's not; not at all. It is clunky, stiff, self-important and lacks any sense of adventure, fun, character or charm – it is frankly a bore. I could care less if Shyamalan has upset fans of the original series with his version – he could have done that and still presented the rest of us with a decent film – but he hasn't He can get shirty with journalists who ask him about the downward trajectory of his career but ultimately he is doing nothing to suggest it is headed any other direction – The Last Airbender is not the worst film ever made, but it certainly another in the growing pile of stinkers that has his Shyamalan's name attached to them.
Lazy lazy and utterly predictable
angel-59126 September 2010
No story, no history, absolutely dreadful script and acting that is frankly despicable. You can't write. You can't make up a world arbitrarily with no fleshing or effort. The Happening and Lady in the Water were terrible. This is much worse.
Shame on you you lazy lazy man. The talent is there. Your ego is simply unable to get past it. Go away and let someone hungry and brave who doesn't live in a fantasy world in their own nether-regions produce something.
You owe me my ticket and the complete waste of one and a half hours of my life. Tosser
Shame on you you lazy lazy man. The talent is there. Your ego is simply unable to get past it. Go away and let someone hungry and brave who doesn't live in a fantasy world in their own nether-regions produce something.
You owe me my ticket and the complete waste of one and a half hours of my life. Tosser
The most inept film-making I have seen in years
MovieManPat1 July 2010
Warning: Spoilers
The only thing I can really say about The Last Airbender is this: Epic Fail. Just how epic? Paramount Pictures gave M. Night Shyamalan $150 million dollars to adapt the popular Nickolodeon cartoon for the big screen. What they got is an absolute mess of a movie, complete with poor acting, the most hackneyed script ever, and a last-minute conversion to 3-D that only serves to destroys what was possibly some lush cinematography. The Last Airbender is perhaps the worst film of the summer, a feat I thought Jonah Hex had locked down. However, Airbender makes a determined effort. Let me put it this way, as good as Toy Story 3 was, Airbender is just as bad. It was hard to find anything wrong with Toy Story 3. It is nigh impossible to find anything right with Airbender. The story is ridiculously complex. In a world where people can manipulate (bend) the four elements of air, earth, fire and water, depending on their tribal affiliation, there exists a being (the Avatar) who can manipulate all four. This person is also the sole being capable of communing the the "spirit world" which serves to keep things in balance. This being went missing 100 years ago, only to be found in a giant ice sphere by two children of the water tribe. In the 100 years the Avatar has been gone, the Fire tribe has begun conquering the others, though we're never really told why. The disgraced Prince Zuko(Dev Patel, the Slumdog Millionaire himself) of the Fire tribe wants to the Avatar so he can return to his family. The Water children need to save the Avatar to ensure the Fire people don't win. For this point on it becomes to silly to try and summarize. Shyamalan succumbs to his own hubris, loading the film with long, boring exposition communicated through long, boring speeches that I'm sure were meant to be inspirational. Instead they are clichéd, burdensome mounds of words that only slow down an already languidly paced film. He heaps some unnecessary narration on top of the exposition, condescending to the audience as he does it. Perhaps the narration was put in to help the film's target audience, the prepubescent b0ys and girls who watch the cartoon, understand where this convoluted story is going. Sadly, it doesn't. The dialogue is so corny, it left me squirming a little. Also bothersome is the ham-fisted way Shyamalan expounded his themes, which seem to be responsibility, responsibility, and the horror of industry destroying nature (lifted with little change from the Lord of the Rings). Seriously, the Fire people sail their world's oceans in giant steel yachts that feature gigantic smokestacks over visible flame. These stacks spew out a never ending cloud of dark, ashy smoke. The metaphor could not be more clear had it just been printed as a subtitle across the screen. The acting is bad across the board. The child cast as Aan, the Avatar, Noah Ringer, a wooden child actor if there ever was one. He speaks his lines as if reciting them of a cue card just off screen. The two Water tribe children, Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) are no better. A colleague of mine I saw the film with noted that Rathbone seemed downright anxious every time he was on screen, delivering his lines tersely, with little emotion. The older actors just phone it in. The usually reliable Cliff Curtis looks bored stiff as the leader of the Fire people, while the main antagonist, a Fire general played by Aasif Mandvi, is neither menacing nor scary. He comes off as a schoolyard bully, all bluster and no balls. The only actor I found brought any sort of depth to his role was Shaun Toub (Yinsen from Iron Man). Playing Prince Zuko's Uncle Iroh, he's conflicted between his duty to the prince and his beliefs in the spirit world, something the Fire people have come to consider children's superstition. Perhaps the most egregious error of the movie is the 3-D conversion. 3-D tends to suck all the light out of the images it portends to display, leaving viewers with a murky picture where shadow and light blend together. There are no crisp lines in the film, no real detail. Which is a shame, as the film's setting should've been its biggest strength. The movie travels from an arctic campsite, where the whites should have popped against the bluish hues of the ice and water around it. When it travels to warmer climates, the greens and browns should have been awe-inspiring. It's not. It all looks faded. Much as with Clash of the Titans, the 3-D is barely noticeable throughout the film, and contributes nothing. I fear that Hollywood has cynically latched onto this fad for the high ticket price it commands rather than for any real artistic merit. My only relief was the movie was short, so I didn't get the usual headache 3-D movies tend to give me. I didn't expect much going into The Last Airbender. However, I didn't expect it to be quite so bad. It's like watching a train wreck unfold over 94 minutes. The problem is, that 94 minutes feels like an eternity. The end of the film hints at a sequel. I hope some divine being takes mercy on us all and never lets that happen.
Beautiful images and score, but tedious and misconcieved
TheLittleSongbird9 December 2010
Just for the record, and hopefully this should be brief, I love the series Avatar:The Last Airbender. It is beautifully animated, has great music, writing, story lines and characters and is quite deep for an animated series. I wasn't expecting this film to be faithful to the series but at least stick to its spirit. Sadly it didn't do that. The only redeeming qualities for me were the stunning cinematography and scenery and the beautiful music score. Everything else fails. Here banality replaces complexity, consequently the characters are poorly explored and very shallow. The script is absolutely awful with trite dialogue and wooden delivery, the story is juvenile and woefully misconcieved with heavy subplotting and the pacing is so dull it makes the film tedious. And to add further insult to injury, the direction is very bland, there is a complete overload of CGI and the acting is wooden from pretty much all involved. Overall, a big disappointment and best avoided. 2/10 Bethany Cox
Shyamalan Should Be Ashamed
chicagorob117 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I read a number of the negative IMDb reviews about this adoption of the original cartoon series. I wasn't going to bother adding to the pile.
Until I watched this on Netflix. Then I just had to say something concerning this pathetic movie. Simply stated: Shyamalan should lose his SAG and director's membership cards.
This film was a failure on so many levels and in so many aspects, it defies logic. Especially in light of the incredible source material available to him.
Along with many other shortsighted, clueless and plainly stupid decisions, Airbender just proves Shyamalan is extremely limited as a director and producer.
Until I watched this on Netflix. Then I just had to say something concerning this pathetic movie. Simply stated: Shyamalan should lose his SAG and director's membership cards.
This film was a failure on so many levels and in so many aspects, it defies logic. Especially in light of the incredible source material available to him.
- Noah Ringer as Ang (Aaauunng?) is completely out of his depth. He is frankly a terrible actor and his portrayal has NONE of the charm, humor and innocence of the Airbender. The only thing he does is Tai Chai, which is far from enough to justify his casting. After getting the part Ringer even had to go to acting school, but it looks like he skipped a lot of classes.
- Entire sections of the story are skipped or glossed over using cheesy voice-overs and montages.
- Shyamalan changed the pronunciation of the characters names, to "honor the source material"? Airbender was created by a couple Americans named DiMartino and Konietzko. What source material was he looking at?
Along with many other shortsighted, clueless and plainly stupid decisions, Airbender just proves Shyamalan is extremely limited as a director and producer.
M.Night Shyamalan should be ashamed....
LunaRaven30 June 2010
Warning: Spoilers
M.Night.Shyamalan ought to be ashamed of himself. I went to the midnight premier of the Last Airbender as a hopeful long time fan of the wonderful animated series. Less than thirty minutes into the feature however I realized that my hopes would be dead on the ground by the time the movie ended.
Over the past few months this film has been surrounded by controversy. The casting choices have caused accusations of racism to be leveled and many fans were left feeling disappointed months before the film even premiered. Now, I don't think M.Night Shyamalan is a racist. I don't know him well enough to make such a slanderous claim. Would I have preferred that the characters in the movie had appeared as the fans had come to know them over the past five years? Of course. However at the heart of Avatar fans, I don't think changing the appearances of certain nations was a racial issue. Simply put, I think people just wanted the characters to look the way they were supposed to look. However, had this movie been written well and had the acting been terrific, changing the appearances of the nations wouldn't have mattered. Because at its heart the story of Avatar is a human story with strong themes of redemption and forgiveness. I think people would have been able to look past their disgruntlement and see the beauty of the story. That is, if the movie had been well written. And I'm sorry to say, it was not.
Naturally, it was always going to be difficult to condense over eight hours worth of animated material into two-hours of movie. How do you choose what goes and what stays in a series where almost everything is interconnected? It was a daunting task indeed. But successful adaption of books, television series, and even video games have been done before. If the works of Tolkien, the master of intricate detail, could be adapted into a series that left a decent amount of his life long fans pleased, surely Avatar: The Last Airbender could be adapted with the same success. Unfortunately, this adaption was far from successful. In fact I think this movie officially joins the list of the most atrocious film adaptions, right along side of the horrendous Earthsea mini-series, the painful Eragon flop, and perhaps the even worse Dark is Rising catastrophe.
So where did this movie go wrong? The better question would be: where didn't it go wrong? The writing was horrendous. High school freshmen could probably manage to come up with a better screenplay. I'm not sure who gave Shyamalan permission to write this film, but whoever it was needs to formally apologize to the fans and to the people who wasted their money hoping to see something worthwhile. The direction was choppy—certain scenes made little sense, the camera lingered on other similarly senseless scenes, and at times the camera angles were difficult to follow. The lighting in the film was too dark throughout and when color was added, it was in too much excess. Overall, there was a lack of balance and cohesion in the way this movie was filmed. The plot was a mess. People who weren't familiar with the series would have been left lost, and people who were familiar with the series were left confused. Certain characters that were supposed to do things didn't, lines weren't said when they should have been said, and elements of the plot were just erased entirely. There was no Avatar Roku, only a dragon spirit that may have been an attempt at Fang, but a very bad one. There was no Omashu, no Kiyoshi warriors, there were no refugees at the northern air temple and Aang never attempted to master fire bending. In fact, in the movie he was too timid to learn water bending, which fans know to be a fallacy. And the characters that were featured were not only acted and written poorly, but many of them modeled new pronunciations of their names. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this. Perhaps the changes in pronunciation were more accurate. Even if that was the case, they never should have strayed from the pronunciations in the series. Fans grew accustomed to a certain way of a saying and hearing a name. To change the pronunciations only led to confusion and distastes. I heard many people in the theatre around me growling in frustration every time Aang was pronounced "Ah-ng".
I won't get into my dislike of the graphics in detail. Appa and Momo were fairly horrendous, the bending was decent but done incorrectly(actors had to make a hell of a lot of movement for anything to happen, whereas in the series each movement corresponds to the movement of the elements), and the 3D was pointless.
Overall, I'd give this movie a 0 out of 10. Fans of the series, don't waste your money. People who are not fans and areconsidering giving this film a chance, use the money you would have spent on the ticket to rent the first season at the nearest video store.
Over the past few months this film has been surrounded by controversy. The casting choices have caused accusations of racism to be leveled and many fans were left feeling disappointed months before the film even premiered. Now, I don't think M.Night Shyamalan is a racist. I don't know him well enough to make such a slanderous claim. Would I have preferred that the characters in the movie had appeared as the fans had come to know them over the past five years? Of course. However at the heart of Avatar fans, I don't think changing the appearances of certain nations was a racial issue. Simply put, I think people just wanted the characters to look the way they were supposed to look. However, had this movie been written well and had the acting been terrific, changing the appearances of the nations wouldn't have mattered. Because at its heart the story of Avatar is a human story with strong themes of redemption and forgiveness. I think people would have been able to look past their disgruntlement and see the beauty of the story. That is, if the movie had been well written. And I'm sorry to say, it was not.
Naturally, it was always going to be difficult to condense over eight hours worth of animated material into two-hours of movie. How do you choose what goes and what stays in a series where almost everything is interconnected? It was a daunting task indeed. But successful adaption of books, television series, and even video games have been done before. If the works of Tolkien, the master of intricate detail, could be adapted into a series that left a decent amount of his life long fans pleased, surely Avatar: The Last Airbender could be adapted with the same success. Unfortunately, this adaption was far from successful. In fact I think this movie officially joins the list of the most atrocious film adaptions, right along side of the horrendous Earthsea mini-series, the painful Eragon flop, and perhaps the even worse Dark is Rising catastrophe.
So where did this movie go wrong? The better question would be: where didn't it go wrong? The writing was horrendous. High school freshmen could probably manage to come up with a better screenplay. I'm not sure who gave Shyamalan permission to write this film, but whoever it was needs to formally apologize to the fans and to the people who wasted their money hoping to see something worthwhile. The direction was choppy—certain scenes made little sense, the camera lingered on other similarly senseless scenes, and at times the camera angles were difficult to follow. The lighting in the film was too dark throughout and when color was added, it was in too much excess. Overall, there was a lack of balance and cohesion in the way this movie was filmed. The plot was a mess. People who weren't familiar with the series would have been left lost, and people who were familiar with the series were left confused. Certain characters that were supposed to do things didn't, lines weren't said when they should have been said, and elements of the plot were just erased entirely. There was no Avatar Roku, only a dragon spirit that may have been an attempt at Fang, but a very bad one. There was no Omashu, no Kiyoshi warriors, there were no refugees at the northern air temple and Aang never attempted to master fire bending. In fact, in the movie he was too timid to learn water bending, which fans know to be a fallacy. And the characters that were featured were not only acted and written poorly, but many of them modeled new pronunciations of their names. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this. Perhaps the changes in pronunciation were more accurate. Even if that was the case, they never should have strayed from the pronunciations in the series. Fans grew accustomed to a certain way of a saying and hearing a name. To change the pronunciations only led to confusion and distastes. I heard many people in the theatre around me growling in frustration every time Aang was pronounced "Ah-ng".
I won't get into my dislike of the graphics in detail. Appa and Momo were fairly horrendous, the bending was decent but done incorrectly(actors had to make a hell of a lot of movement for anything to happen, whereas in the series each movement corresponds to the movement of the elements), and the 3D was pointless.
Overall, I'd give this movie a 0 out of 10. Fans of the series, don't waste your money. People who are not fans and areconsidering giving this film a chance, use the money you would have spent on the ticket to rent the first season at the nearest video store.
$150 million dollar disappointment
ofvanityandwax2 July 2010
I went into the movie knowing it would not be even a fraction as good as the real show. However, I didn't know that would make me literally want to leave the theater in the middle of the very movie. How someone could do such damage in approximately an hour and forty minutes is entirely beyond me. It was ridiculous, the only way to describe it is a $150 million dollar failure. I could understand if the effects were not up to par but the biggest disappointment was the acting. It was so stiff and it never once felt like the actors meant a word they were saying. I caught a glimpse of an interview with Nicola Peltz and Jackson Rathbone on TV and even their approach to that felt so wrong. It felt kind of disgusting to see as I've lately been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (with extras) almost religiously for the past month.
The script in itself should have been tossed into the garbage and burnt and it's remains locked away so that no one would ever have to suffer looking at such garbage. That's why I'm not really sure if it's the actors or the script that's really to blame for the atrocious "movie" that's resulted. The long and, I'm assuming this what they were going for, "inspirational" speeches merely consisted of crudely strung together clichés and the language left much to be desired. I found myself almost twitching at the phrase (something along the lines) "You guys are AWESOME people!"...
What I find the be so incredibly amazing is how someone could honestly fail to such a proportion when they literally have a blue print already created. The fans know how the characters look and sound and while I understand that no one fits the package perfectly one out of two would be better than nothing. As well, suddenly deciding to change the pronunciation of the characters name is definitely not the best idea, while I do understand that he wanted the names to sound like their Asian origin, it didn't go over well and the whole time I was just cringing at the mere mention of Aang and Sokka's names.
This movie does not hold a candle to the original show. Heck, it should be retitled as it is hardly resembles the original in any way shape or form. While I do realize that not all episodes can be featured, the sequence of events just left you feeling awkward and confused. I, also, loathed the way they worked the bending in like it took five minutes of moving ones hands around awkwardly before any actual bending occurred. Most of the fighting was like fifteen minutes of martial arts with like the occasional bit of air bending and a little water being splashed around.
There was nothing to love in this movie not even the most adorable of characters such as Momo. Momo had literally what three minutes in the entire movie which I found extremely depressing as Momo was always one of the characters I just wanted to cuddle because of his adorable mannerisms but in the movie I had no love for the digitized Momo. Not even Appa was interesting.
This movie leaves me hoping and praying that M. Night Shyamalan goes broke and is black listed so that he can't ruin the series even more so. This is definitely something you will spend some time just trying to forget.
The script in itself should have been tossed into the garbage and burnt and it's remains locked away so that no one would ever have to suffer looking at such garbage. That's why I'm not really sure if it's the actors or the script that's really to blame for the atrocious "movie" that's resulted. The long and, I'm assuming this what they were going for, "inspirational" speeches merely consisted of crudely strung together clichés and the language left much to be desired. I found myself almost twitching at the phrase (something along the lines) "You guys are AWESOME people!"...
What I find the be so incredibly amazing is how someone could honestly fail to such a proportion when they literally have a blue print already created. The fans know how the characters look and sound and while I understand that no one fits the package perfectly one out of two would be better than nothing. As well, suddenly deciding to change the pronunciation of the characters name is definitely not the best idea, while I do understand that he wanted the names to sound like their Asian origin, it didn't go over well and the whole time I was just cringing at the mere mention of Aang and Sokka's names.
This movie does not hold a candle to the original show. Heck, it should be retitled as it is hardly resembles the original in any way shape or form. While I do realize that not all episodes can be featured, the sequence of events just left you feeling awkward and confused. I, also, loathed the way they worked the bending in like it took five minutes of moving ones hands around awkwardly before any actual bending occurred. Most of the fighting was like fifteen minutes of martial arts with like the occasional bit of air bending and a little water being splashed around.
There was nothing to love in this movie not even the most adorable of characters such as Momo. Momo had literally what three minutes in the entire movie which I found extremely depressing as Momo was always one of the characters I just wanted to cuddle because of his adorable mannerisms but in the movie I had no love for the digitized Momo. Not even Appa was interesting.
This movie leaves me hoping and praying that M. Night Shyamalan goes broke and is black listed so that he can't ruin the series even more so. This is definitely something you will spend some time just trying to forget.
Well, It At Least Lived Up to Its Reputation
Michael_Elliott19 July 2012
The Last Airbender (2010)
1/2 (out of 4)
After being freed from an iceberg, Aang (Noah Ringer), a long lost Avatar who is the only one able to bend the four elements, finds himself doing battle against the Fire Nation who who attempting to take over all three Nations (Air, Water, Earth). M. Night Shyamalan's THE LAST AIRBENDER is based on the very popular television show, which is something I've never seen so I pretty much walked into this not knowing what to expect from the story. I'll admit by the ten-minute mark I was pretty much lost in regards to the story and each passing minute I found myself growing even more confused. I then had to do something I never do, which was stop the movie and call someone familiar with the TV series and this film to try and find out what the heck was supposed to be going on. I painfully sat through the rest of the movie and afterwards I started to read other reviews and I was happy to see that I wasn't the only one who couldn't make any sense out of this material. I will say that I think Shyamalan has gotten some pretty bad beatings over his recent films, which I think were unfair but there's no doubt that he deserves the majority of the blame here, although I think a very strong argument could be made that those who hired him should be on fans hit list more than Shyamalan. The biggest fault of his was the screenplay, which simply doesn't make any sense as the story is always jumping from one place to another and none it ever seems connected. From what I've gathered he was jumping around so many parts of the show that unless you're familiar with it you weren't going to know what's going on here. Even worse are the actors who are all extremely bad and come off even worse when they have to say the bad dialogue. I don't like to attack child actors so I won't mention any of them by name but what were the producers thinking when they agreed to cast them? Surely there were more talented people out in Hollywood. The special effects are all poor, the action badly directed and even worse is that there's simply nothing here to care about. Some nice cinematography is about the only thing going for this turkey, which is every bit the misfire its reputation would have you believe.
1/2 (out of 4)
After being freed from an iceberg, Aang (Noah Ringer), a long lost Avatar who is the only one able to bend the four elements, finds himself doing battle against the Fire Nation who who attempting to take over all three Nations (Air, Water, Earth). M. Night Shyamalan's THE LAST AIRBENDER is based on the very popular television show, which is something I've never seen so I pretty much walked into this not knowing what to expect from the story. I'll admit by the ten-minute mark I was pretty much lost in regards to the story and each passing minute I found myself growing even more confused. I then had to do something I never do, which was stop the movie and call someone familiar with the TV series and this film to try and find out what the heck was supposed to be going on. I painfully sat through the rest of the movie and afterwards I started to read other reviews and I was happy to see that I wasn't the only one who couldn't make any sense out of this material. I will say that I think Shyamalan has gotten some pretty bad beatings over his recent films, which I think were unfair but there's no doubt that he deserves the majority of the blame here, although I think a very strong argument could be made that those who hired him should be on fans hit list more than Shyamalan. The biggest fault of his was the screenplay, which simply doesn't make any sense as the story is always jumping from one place to another and none it ever seems connected. From what I've gathered he was jumping around so many parts of the show that unless you're familiar with it you weren't going to know what's going on here. Even worse are the actors who are all extremely bad and come off even worse when they have to say the bad dialogue. I don't like to attack child actors so I won't mention any of them by name but what were the producers thinking when they agreed to cast them? Surely there were more talented people out in Hollywood. The special effects are all poor, the action badly directed and even worse is that there's simply nothing here to care about. Some nice cinematography is about the only thing going for this turkey, which is every bit the misfire its reputation would have you believe.
Joyless
jace_the_film_guy2 June 2023
I recently watched the animated series with my two older kids. After finishing that masterpiece, they heard about the live-action adaptation. Having never seen it myself, I thought we might as well give it a chance. I was wrong.
I tried to go in with an open mind, but this movie is terrible. The film started with the changed iconic intro, and I knew we were in trouble. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have changed anything. The problem is that they changed the elements that already worked.
The name pronunciation (Aang, Iroh, Sokka, etc.) is frustrating and on the verge of laughable. The plot drags, yet skips important points, with Katara's voiceover glossing over key details. Character development is non-existent, with Sokka's character completely devoid of personality. The casting is atrocious, and I cannot think of a single "hit" in the group. The acting is bland, and the costumes are even blander.
This film had so much potential. A great director, excellent source material and a loyal fanbase. Unfortunately, the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" was never muttered in the writer's room. The series was full of so much joy and this film is just joyless.
Worst Character: Sokka Worst Quote: "Aang? Can you hear me? I knew you were real. I always knew you'd return." - Katara Worst Scene: The Earthbender Revolt Best Piece of Score (I actually liked the score): "Flow Like Water"
Note: Why was there so much movement for minimal bending?
I tried to go in with an open mind, but this movie is terrible. The film started with the changed iconic intro, and I knew we were in trouble. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have changed anything. The problem is that they changed the elements that already worked.
The name pronunciation (Aang, Iroh, Sokka, etc.) is frustrating and on the verge of laughable. The plot drags, yet skips important points, with Katara's voiceover glossing over key details. Character development is non-existent, with Sokka's character completely devoid of personality. The casting is atrocious, and I cannot think of a single "hit" in the group. The acting is bland, and the costumes are even blander.
This film had so much potential. A great director, excellent source material and a loyal fanbase. Unfortunately, the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" was never muttered in the writer's room. The series was full of so much joy and this film is just joyless.
Worst Character: Sokka Worst Quote: "Aang? Can you hear me? I knew you were real. I always knew you'd return." - Katara Worst Scene: The Earthbender Revolt Best Piece of Score (I actually liked the score): "Flow Like Water"
Note: Why was there so much movement for minimal bending?
Bad movie, disastrous adaptation
petra_ste28 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
The original Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series is the rare kind of fantasy fiction ostensibly aimed at kids which can also be enjoyed by adults - like The Hobbit (the book, not the tiresome movie trilogy). The Nickelodeon saga ran for three seasons full of compelling storylines and vivid characters.
So, how does a director whose increasingly shaky reputation hinged on thrillers adapt in 90 minutes the entire first season of an adventure/fantasy series?
Badly.
I have never been a huge fan of M. Night (although I really liked Unbreakable), but usually even his flawed films (say, Signs or The Village) have something interesting about them. This one is worthless though.
Writing is leaden and ponderous; the voice-over by Katara (Nicola Peltz), in particular, is one of the most overwritten, insufferable narrations I recall in a major production. In spite of all the yammering, the exposition is so inefficient that the series' rich lore and world-building are mercilessly castrated: the result is a generic, shallow fantasy setting.
(To be fair, the first season was challenging to adapt because of its episodic structure; the second and third have more forward momentum).
While M. Night has never been a great writer (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable notwithstanding), he does have visual talent. Unfortunately, he is not a strong ACTION director - a limit he is probably smart enough to realize, since both his superhero movie (Unbreakable) and his alien invasion movie (Signs) featured *one* fight scene each. He could not write around this limit here, since The Last Airbender relies heavily on action. The result is a string of set-pieces ranging from bland to ridiculous.
In the series, "bending" - a mix between martial arts and magic employed to command elements (water, earth, fire, air) - was visually effective and precise, with each elemental effect corresponding to a quick, clear body movement. This connection is lost in the movie, where characters gesticulate wildly and flail limbs around to produce comically tiny results; it takes six people performing a choreographed dance to make a medium-sized rock float (in the animated series, characters toss boulders around with a flick of the wrist). It's pathetic, the kind of stuff which gives fantasy a bad name.
Still, the original sin of this film is how the story is better fit for animation rather than live-action and for a series rather than a movie. I can understand the appeal of adapting, say, a book into a film... but here the story has *already* been told in a visual medium, very well and with more time for subplots and character arcs than you can possibly have in a movie. So... what was the point, again?
4/10
So, how does a director whose increasingly shaky reputation hinged on thrillers adapt in 90 minutes the entire first season of an adventure/fantasy series?
Badly.
I have never been a huge fan of M. Night (although I really liked Unbreakable), but usually even his flawed films (say, Signs or The Village) have something interesting about them. This one is worthless though.
Writing is leaden and ponderous; the voice-over by Katara (Nicola Peltz), in particular, is one of the most overwritten, insufferable narrations I recall in a major production. In spite of all the yammering, the exposition is so inefficient that the series' rich lore and world-building are mercilessly castrated: the result is a generic, shallow fantasy setting.
(To be fair, the first season was challenging to adapt because of its episodic structure; the second and third have more forward momentum).
While M. Night has never been a great writer (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable notwithstanding), he does have visual talent. Unfortunately, he is not a strong ACTION director - a limit he is probably smart enough to realize, since both his superhero movie (Unbreakable) and his alien invasion movie (Signs) featured *one* fight scene each. He could not write around this limit here, since The Last Airbender relies heavily on action. The result is a string of set-pieces ranging from bland to ridiculous.
In the series, "bending" - a mix between martial arts and magic employed to command elements (water, earth, fire, air) - was visually effective and precise, with each elemental effect corresponding to a quick, clear body movement. This connection is lost in the movie, where characters gesticulate wildly and flail limbs around to produce comically tiny results; it takes six people performing a choreographed dance to make a medium-sized rock float (in the animated series, characters toss boulders around with a flick of the wrist). It's pathetic, the kind of stuff which gives fantasy a bad name.
Still, the original sin of this film is how the story is better fit for animation rather than live-action and for a series rather than a movie. I can understand the appeal of adapting, say, a book into a film... but here the story has *already* been told in a visual medium, very well and with more time for subplots and character arcs than you can possibly have in a movie. So... what was the point, again?
4/10
Yes, it really is that bad
timgneher1 July 2010
I walked into this movie with pretty low expectations. I didn't expect something as good as the cartoon, I didn't expect a perfect adaptation. I expected some glitzy action sequences, cheap emotional ploys, just some fun summer fair.
What did I get? A movie so indescribably horrible I can only shake my head in bewilderment. Believe the critics. The writing sucks, the acting is stiff, the pacing clumsy, the 3-D beyond bad, the overall tone way too dark and brooding. Not much here is salvageable.
Obviously Shyamalan got completely caught up in the mythology of the world and missed the fact that what made the original cartoon so great were the CHARACTERS. Of which there are none in this film.
But really, even just a competently produced film would have been nice. And it almost was. The music was great. The special effects looked amazing, I don't care what anyone says. The fighting was cool. The sets were adequately spectacular. Indeed, it appears the only one who didn't show up for work was Shyamalan. While the adult actors manage to find their way somewhat on their own, the poor kids are obviously lost without someone competently leading them, they spend most of the film in a bewildered daze. Even some of the background extras acted awkwardly. But of course, there are no real survivors of Shyamalan's CLUNKER of a script. I can't believe someone didn't stop this guy. There were maybe two scenes that didn't sound awkward, and they had no dialog. I don't think any film has ever been such a disaster due to one man's gross ineptitude.
Such a shame. It could have been so good.
What did I get? A movie so indescribably horrible I can only shake my head in bewilderment. Believe the critics. The writing sucks, the acting is stiff, the pacing clumsy, the 3-D beyond bad, the overall tone way too dark and brooding. Not much here is salvageable.
Obviously Shyamalan got completely caught up in the mythology of the world and missed the fact that what made the original cartoon so great were the CHARACTERS. Of which there are none in this film.
But really, even just a competently produced film would have been nice. And it almost was. The music was great. The special effects looked amazing, I don't care what anyone says. The fighting was cool. The sets were adequately spectacular. Indeed, it appears the only one who didn't show up for work was Shyamalan. While the adult actors manage to find their way somewhat on their own, the poor kids are obviously lost without someone competently leading them, they spend most of the film in a bewildered daze. Even some of the background extras acted awkwardly. But of course, there are no real survivors of Shyamalan's CLUNKER of a script. I can't believe someone didn't stop this guy. There were maybe two scenes that didn't sound awkward, and they had no dialog. I don't think any film has ever been such a disaster due to one man's gross ineptitude.
Such a shame. It could have been so good.
Simple Movies Deserve Simple Reviews...
A_Different_Drummer29 September 2015
To draw attention to the facile manner in which the producer/director chose to re-imagine this tale, here is a "connect the dots" review. Like the movie itself, the review is simple to the point of emptiness:
1. The original series LAST AIRBENDER was not merely good, it was one of the most original and best written series in the history of TV. Not merely compelling but actually offering a spiritual undertone for the discerning ear. It was not merely for children but for adults as well. Its fame and popularity, its iconic stature, was well earned. (The "Korra" sequel, not so much.)
2. Much speculation has been directed to how this film came about? The most popular theory is that a whack of cash was handed to the producer/director at a low point in his career and to this day it remains a matter of conjecture as to how much actually made it to the screen??
3. Another mystery is why the casting is so bizarre -- with many actors borrowed from Bollywood -- and why the director felt compelled to "leave his mark" on this already-abused production by changing the pronunciation of the names of the major characters...?
4. Astonishingly, the IMDb reviews and those of the professional critics completely agree. This film is terrible. The only redeeming factor is that APPA the flying bison steals all his scenes, a claim that no human actor in this film can make.
5. In many ways it is an astonishing feat to take such a compelling and heart-warming tale and transmute it into an "after-school special" that harks back to the production values of a Dr Who episode in the 1970s. Oh The Infamy!
1. The original series LAST AIRBENDER was not merely good, it was one of the most original and best written series in the history of TV. Not merely compelling but actually offering a spiritual undertone for the discerning ear. It was not merely for children but for adults as well. Its fame and popularity, its iconic stature, was well earned. (The "Korra" sequel, not so much.)
2. Much speculation has been directed to how this film came about? The most popular theory is that a whack of cash was handed to the producer/director at a low point in his career and to this day it remains a matter of conjecture as to how much actually made it to the screen??
3. Another mystery is why the casting is so bizarre -- with many actors borrowed from Bollywood -- and why the director felt compelled to "leave his mark" on this already-abused production by changing the pronunciation of the names of the major characters...?
4. Astonishingly, the IMDb reviews and those of the professional critics completely agree. This film is terrible. The only redeeming factor is that APPA the flying bison steals all his scenes, a claim that no human actor in this film can make.
5. In many ways it is an astonishing feat to take such a compelling and heart-warming tale and transmute it into an "after-school special" that harks back to the production values of a Dr Who episode in the 1970s. Oh The Infamy!
Massive Disappointment. Just Terrible.
festizio1330 June 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I went to see the Midnight showing of The Last Airbender tonight. I am a huge fan of the series and had been awaiting this movie for months. I understood that this was to be a children's movie, but the series was for children as well and I loved that. What could go wrong? This movie was a cinematic abomination. The entire movie, which covers the first "Book" of the series is rushed together and jumps around in a totally nonsensical manner. There is absolutely NO time spent on characterization. None of the characters had any depth at all and may as well have been cardboard cutouts. Major plot points are summarized through narration or montage and the film would leave any person not familiar with the story absolutely dumbfounded. With all of my heart I discourage you from seeing this movie. Go see Karate Kid. Go see Killers. Go see (I cannot believe I am saying this) Eclipse. Just stay away from this movie.
The Last Airbender (2010)
SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain26 December 2011
Oh dear! Words can't describe this failure. Shyamalan disappeared up his own arse after Signs and forgot to take his talent with him. Here, he makes the misguided jump to big-budget adaptation world. Taking a much loved cartoon series (which I can't wait to see), this is an obvious watered down attempt at condensing as much as possible. The movie moves far too quickly and stupidly. The film actually begins with backstory scrolling up the screen, over black, whilst being read out. Why do both? Why not have some visuals for us?After this painful set-up some kids that deserve to be smacked about because of their terrible acting discover some frozen guy and he's the chosen one. There's some interesting stuff here, but Shyamalan can't handle it. He has the mind of a hermit. Nothing outside of his own head makes any sense to him. Watch him fumble about with turgid dialogue. It's painful. It doesn't help that the words bending/bend/bender are thrown around so much. I'll certainly be creating a drinking game for this. Nobody gets out of this film unscathed. Awful effects, jarring editing, and some twatfaced hairy floating monster make this a laughable attempt at a franchise. Shyamalan is one of those people that needs to take a decade off and reevaluate his life.
Terrible
Partofthevoid30 June 2010
Just saw this, I don't know what to call it. It was the only movie I've seen where everyone in the theater booed at the end and threw things at the screen. I feel like it was written by someone who can't read, write or care about their or anyone else's work. How do you take something that seemed like such a good idea and make it so terrible. I hope that the man or men responsible for this never get work again. This is what I would hope qualifies as a career killer, because I wish I had slept instead of going to this movie. I want my money, time, and expectations back. As in I expected at least good fun with the 'bending' or fight/dance scenes. I feel like I just got served... Do not watch or let ANYONE YOU KNOW GO TO THIS MOVIE, AND SOMEONE SHOULD PETITION TO CANCEL THE OTHER TWO(three?).
Skip the movie - watch the series.
cricketbat3 August 2018
The Last Airbender is kind of a mess. M. Night Shyamalan drained all the humor and fun from the original story and left a movie that is boring for children and tedious for adults. Not even the cool visual effects can make up for the awful dialogue and terrible acting. Skip the movie - watch the series.
I'm not mad. I'm not mad. I'm envious
keitronwallace15 April 2020
No one. Literally, NO ONE in America has a job where they could pull an M. Night Shamayalan at their place of business and still be asked to continue working. If I pulled an M Night at my job, I'd be fired and then sued for negligence. I could have left this review years ago but I needed to grow. I needed to experience the world in all of it's ambiguity. I wanted to come back to this movie a changed man - a more mature man with a new perspective. I am changed. I have a wife. I have a beautiful baby girl. I hate this movie. I would trade it all to be M. Night Shamayalan
How Not To Do An Adaptation By M. Night Shyamalan
ShanTeaTime13 April 2020
So I like many others really love the original animated show "Avatar: The Last Airbender". It was beautifully animated, full of humor and well thought out characters. Not to mention some very relevant topics and discussion points that made it feel more like an anime rather than just "standard American television". The shows entire premise moves at a fantastic pace, making it so even the "filler" episodes that don't move the main plot along are still very enjoyable. Seriously there's not one episode from that series that I dislike.
However, moving onto this film. What the actual hell? How could a director who created one of my favorite films (Sixth Sense) make this unfaithful, ugly looking, frankly insulting "adaptation" even if you want to call it that. Right off the bat we have terrible choices for casting. Katara and Sokka are played by caucasian actors, whom bare in mind aren't even decent! Neither of them bring the essence of either character (ie. compassion, strength or humor) and they have zero sibling-esque chemistry. Aang is played by a kid who is not an actor and it shows. Then Zuko is okay, but his scar is laughable in comparison to the series which is pivotal to his character arch. Also Uncle Iroh is completely not what he should be, yes he's wise in the series but also warm and comedic.
Again I also don't understand the casting, it's like the movie is purposely putting white actors at the forefront and actors of colour as bad guys? Which isn't what the series did at all, it represented characters as representations of different countries/places (ie. Japan, Native American, Chinese, etc). It's like Shyamalan never even watched the series at all! But according to him he's a huge fan so it baffles my mind to think a "fan" could mess up this badly!
Looking past the racially insensitive casing for just a second, the CGI animals in this look awful. There aren't as many as in the series, but Appa and Momo are in the film and good god it's like a nightmare. I don't know if the movie was trying to appear "more realistic" but come on now! None of this is "realistic" to begin with. The rest of the film is awful looking too, either boring or too darkly lit or way too zoomed in. Unlike in the series which is colourful and vibrant. The costume design is ugly, looking like cheap party city costumes. Also I mentioned before that Zuko's scar is pathetic, but so is Aang's arrows. They just look...like poorly done tattoo jobs to be honest. It didn't have to be a plain set of blue arrows like in the series, but at least make them stand out and not blend into his skin like he's seen too much sun. I won't get too much into the hairstyling in this movie because ugh, what happened seriously?
There's also the horrible HORRIBLE changing of the bending capabilities. First of all, why change it so the firebenders have less power and can't just bend? That's kind of the point to begin with. Fire is a dangerous element, but if handled correctly it can be beautiful. That's LITERALLY ESTABLISHED IN THE FIRST SEASON and later on with Zuko being Aang's eventual teacher. Also the airbenders can still do that so it's not like Shyamalan was trying to "even the playing field" or whatever! Other than that, the bending moves overall are so overly complicated. Dude watch the series, it does not take 3 minutes of wiggling around to throw one boulder as an earthbender that's just stupid! It's apparent that the choreography is at its peak of looking horrendous during the final battle, it's so slowwww. Yeah just have Aang stand there for 10 minutes while everything around him is in havoc, totally makes more sense than in the series where he turns into a giant water-bended fish monster.
I understand that many won't go in caring about all this stuff unless you've seen the series (which you should go see), but even forgetting all of that this movie literally has no soul. It's somehow boring, slow, or too rushed in sections and overall awful to watch. You don't care about any of the characters (whose names aren't even correctly pronounced!) and it's just sad. You had it all there to roll with Shyamalan and you couldn't get one aspect correctly.
It's near impossible to make an entire season of a series into a movie anyway, not without missing key character development or world building. It probably would've taken 2 movies per season to get everything right, but obviously not with Shyamalan as the director. Give it to someone who knows what's appropriate to change and leave out, and also what a cultural impact the series had in the first place. Yes it's technically a "movie" so I have to give it at least 1 star, but it's barely cohesive enough to be called that.
However, moving onto this film. What the actual hell? How could a director who created one of my favorite films (Sixth Sense) make this unfaithful, ugly looking, frankly insulting "adaptation" even if you want to call it that. Right off the bat we have terrible choices for casting. Katara and Sokka are played by caucasian actors, whom bare in mind aren't even decent! Neither of them bring the essence of either character (ie. compassion, strength or humor) and they have zero sibling-esque chemistry. Aang is played by a kid who is not an actor and it shows. Then Zuko is okay, but his scar is laughable in comparison to the series which is pivotal to his character arch. Also Uncle Iroh is completely not what he should be, yes he's wise in the series but also warm and comedic.
Again I also don't understand the casting, it's like the movie is purposely putting white actors at the forefront and actors of colour as bad guys? Which isn't what the series did at all, it represented characters as representations of different countries/places (ie. Japan, Native American, Chinese, etc). It's like Shyamalan never even watched the series at all! But according to him he's a huge fan so it baffles my mind to think a "fan" could mess up this badly!
Looking past the racially insensitive casing for just a second, the CGI animals in this look awful. There aren't as many as in the series, but Appa and Momo are in the film and good god it's like a nightmare. I don't know if the movie was trying to appear "more realistic" but come on now! None of this is "realistic" to begin with. The rest of the film is awful looking too, either boring or too darkly lit or way too zoomed in. Unlike in the series which is colourful and vibrant. The costume design is ugly, looking like cheap party city costumes. Also I mentioned before that Zuko's scar is pathetic, but so is Aang's arrows. They just look...like poorly done tattoo jobs to be honest. It didn't have to be a plain set of blue arrows like in the series, but at least make them stand out and not blend into his skin like he's seen too much sun. I won't get too much into the hairstyling in this movie because ugh, what happened seriously?
There's also the horrible HORRIBLE changing of the bending capabilities. First of all, why change it so the firebenders have less power and can't just bend? That's kind of the point to begin with. Fire is a dangerous element, but if handled correctly it can be beautiful. That's LITERALLY ESTABLISHED IN THE FIRST SEASON and later on with Zuko being Aang's eventual teacher. Also the airbenders can still do that so it's not like Shyamalan was trying to "even the playing field" or whatever! Other than that, the bending moves overall are so overly complicated. Dude watch the series, it does not take 3 minutes of wiggling around to throw one boulder as an earthbender that's just stupid! It's apparent that the choreography is at its peak of looking horrendous during the final battle, it's so slowwww. Yeah just have Aang stand there for 10 minutes while everything around him is in havoc, totally makes more sense than in the series where he turns into a giant water-bended fish monster.
I understand that many won't go in caring about all this stuff unless you've seen the series (which you should go see), but even forgetting all of that this movie literally has no soul. It's somehow boring, slow, or too rushed in sections and overall awful to watch. You don't care about any of the characters (whose names aren't even correctly pronounced!) and it's just sad. You had it all there to roll with Shyamalan and you couldn't get one aspect correctly.
It's near impossible to make an entire season of a series into a movie anyway, not without missing key character development or world building. It probably would've taken 2 movies per season to get everything right, but obviously not with Shyamalan as the director. Give it to someone who knows what's appropriate to change and leave out, and also what a cultural impact the series had in the first place. Yes it's technically a "movie" so I have to give it at least 1 star, but it's barely cohesive enough to be called that.
The LAST Airbender. It better be!
waccotaco21 July 2011
I don't consider myself picky when it comes to movies. I usually find a thing or two that I like about a movie whether it's terrible or not. But this
I mean wow. As an avid fan of the show and someone who could easily sit and watch episodes over and over again, I tried to be fair and give it a chance. Obviously, no live-action film could come close to the magnificence of the cartoon, but there are ways to pull it off and at least do it justice. This movie has hardly any theatrical merit. It could be considered a Twilight of moviedom—minus the fanbase.
Let's start with the characters or, rather, the lack there-of. One of the things that made the cartoon so great was the incredibly complex and well thought-out characterization. Every single character had dimension and depth. As for the movie, not one of the characters even had a personality. They were cardboard cutouts of their animated selves with no drive or purpose. Katara, Sokka, and Aang had no chemistry and were hardly even together during the length of the film. There's absolutely no motivation for either Sokka or Katara to assist Aang and, had your average movie-goer never seen the show, they would have been wondering what on earth they were doing in the movie at all. I didn't get a father-and-son relationship between Zuko and Iroh, which is one of the most important relationships in the entire series, one that eventually changes Zuko for the better. I could hardly see Zuko doing anything for Iroh in the film other than order him around. Momo and Appa got virtually no screen time and every time I got a glimpse of Momo's face I kept thinking "Zaboomafoo." I won't complain about the way either were rendered, as I don't think it really mattered considering the fact that they played no role in the story, anyway. Overall I felt the casting was dreadful. Both Katara and Zuko were too young, in my opinion, but Katara's lack of age could have been compensated by portraying a strong-willed character something that was never accomplished. None of the characters resembled their animated counterparts: Sokka wasn't sarcastically charming, Katara wasn't determined or motherly, and Aang lacked any and all of his lovable boyish-ness. Zhou was annoying, Iroh had no jolly, old-man qualities, and Fire Lord Ozai? There was absolutely nothing threatening about him at all. I didn't so much mind that he was in it in the first place, but couldn't they have at least made him unapproachable? I felt like I could have walked up and punched him in the face without any repercussions.
The story was botched at best and felt like nothing but a string of events pieced together through basic transitions. It's one thing to stray from the original source for the sake of flow and continuity, but nothing about the story made sense unless you had seen the show, and even then, I was left confused and annoyed when things were switched around without any obvious reasoning. I understand that re-writing eight or nine hours' worth of material into a two-hour movie is a challenge for even the most skilled screenwriter, but it's been done before and could have been done here. My biggest disappointment was the fact that Sozin's comet, the most important aspect of the plot and the driving force for the Aang Gang to defeat the Firelord, was only briefly mentioned at the very end. The fact that this movie left out major plot points, key characters like King Bumi and the Kyoshi warriors, and jumbled around the order of various events is inexcusable. The source material was there; all that needed to be done was to use it and mold it properly. Rather than write the script, M. Night should have hired a screenwriter who actually knew what he was doing.
As for the effects, I can't say much. It's not one of the things I focus on in a movie, even for something that was meant to be heavily influenced by martial arts and elemental magic. I will say that the bending was hideous, and not because of the way the special effects were done. In the original cartoon, every movement corresponded with a reaction; in the film, it took five or ten motions for anything to even happen. Because of this, the bending didn't look natural in any way and came across as pitiful and useless. The fact that the fire benders couldn't shoot fire out of their hands made their bending look much less powerful than it should have been. Perhaps the thing that annoyed me the most was Katara's obvious lack of talent at water bending, a fact that gave the story no benefit and looked more like M. Night just never watched the show.
Since I don't like to totally crush something, I will say a few things I found salvageable about the film. For one thing, I thought the scenery and costumes were decent. They had the look of the show but without much character to them. I liked Yue, who looked a great deal like her character, perhaps the most of any of the actors. The way they did Aang's arrow was kind of cool with all of the detailing, but it could have been a little more visible. The only thing I can say I thought was a nice addition was Zuko's mentioning that his father said he was "like his mother." That was the one and only nice touch. More than anything the first twenty minutes of the film gave me a good laugh as it was clear that the entire movie would be a disaster.
Overall I am sincerely glad I didn't bother to pay money to see this movie and strongly encourage anyone else to avoid it. Spend your money elsewhere, such as purchasing or renting the first season of the show.
Let's start with the characters or, rather, the lack there-of. One of the things that made the cartoon so great was the incredibly complex and well thought-out characterization. Every single character had dimension and depth. As for the movie, not one of the characters even had a personality. They were cardboard cutouts of their animated selves with no drive or purpose. Katara, Sokka, and Aang had no chemistry and were hardly even together during the length of the film. There's absolutely no motivation for either Sokka or Katara to assist Aang and, had your average movie-goer never seen the show, they would have been wondering what on earth they were doing in the movie at all. I didn't get a father-and-son relationship between Zuko and Iroh, which is one of the most important relationships in the entire series, one that eventually changes Zuko for the better. I could hardly see Zuko doing anything for Iroh in the film other than order him around. Momo and Appa got virtually no screen time and every time I got a glimpse of Momo's face I kept thinking "Zaboomafoo." I won't complain about the way either were rendered, as I don't think it really mattered considering the fact that they played no role in the story, anyway. Overall I felt the casting was dreadful. Both Katara and Zuko were too young, in my opinion, but Katara's lack of age could have been compensated by portraying a strong-willed character something that was never accomplished. None of the characters resembled their animated counterparts: Sokka wasn't sarcastically charming, Katara wasn't determined or motherly, and Aang lacked any and all of his lovable boyish-ness. Zhou was annoying, Iroh had no jolly, old-man qualities, and Fire Lord Ozai? There was absolutely nothing threatening about him at all. I didn't so much mind that he was in it in the first place, but couldn't they have at least made him unapproachable? I felt like I could have walked up and punched him in the face without any repercussions.
The story was botched at best and felt like nothing but a string of events pieced together through basic transitions. It's one thing to stray from the original source for the sake of flow and continuity, but nothing about the story made sense unless you had seen the show, and even then, I was left confused and annoyed when things were switched around without any obvious reasoning. I understand that re-writing eight or nine hours' worth of material into a two-hour movie is a challenge for even the most skilled screenwriter, but it's been done before and could have been done here. My biggest disappointment was the fact that Sozin's comet, the most important aspect of the plot and the driving force for the Aang Gang to defeat the Firelord, was only briefly mentioned at the very end. The fact that this movie left out major plot points, key characters like King Bumi and the Kyoshi warriors, and jumbled around the order of various events is inexcusable. The source material was there; all that needed to be done was to use it and mold it properly. Rather than write the script, M. Night should have hired a screenwriter who actually knew what he was doing.
As for the effects, I can't say much. It's not one of the things I focus on in a movie, even for something that was meant to be heavily influenced by martial arts and elemental magic. I will say that the bending was hideous, and not because of the way the special effects were done. In the original cartoon, every movement corresponded with a reaction; in the film, it took five or ten motions for anything to even happen. Because of this, the bending didn't look natural in any way and came across as pitiful and useless. The fact that the fire benders couldn't shoot fire out of their hands made their bending look much less powerful than it should have been. Perhaps the thing that annoyed me the most was Katara's obvious lack of talent at water bending, a fact that gave the story no benefit and looked more like M. Night just never watched the show.
Since I don't like to totally crush something, I will say a few things I found salvageable about the film. For one thing, I thought the scenery and costumes were decent. They had the look of the show but without much character to them. I liked Yue, who looked a great deal like her character, perhaps the most of any of the actors. The way they did Aang's arrow was kind of cool with all of the detailing, but it could have been a little more visible. The only thing I can say I thought was a nice addition was Zuko's mentioning that his father said he was "like his mother." That was the one and only nice touch. More than anything the first twenty minutes of the film gave me a good laugh as it was clear that the entire movie would be a disaster.
Overall I am sincerely glad I didn't bother to pay money to see this movie and strongly encourage anyone else to avoid it. Spend your money elsewhere, such as purchasing or renting the first season of the show.
Another bad live-action adaptation of a good cartoon
Rectangular_businessman6 September 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Here we go again: Hollywood makes another lousy movie based on a good animated show, which lacks any single one of the virtues that made the source material so popular in first place.
To be honest, I really had big hopes for this movie, mostly because, despite the fact that his movies seem to get worse and worse as time goes by, I still had some bits of faith on M. Night Shyamalan: After all "The Sixth Sense" was great, "Unbreakable" was interesting. But also, the animated show in which this movie was (loosely) based had a great story, with a pretty good character/plot development, with many virtues to exploit.
This was a perfect chance for Shyamalan to show that he didn't lost his touch (And also, that he wasn't one trick pony)Also, unlike most of the directors responsible for lame live actions version of cartoons (Such as Tim Hill or Raja Gosnell) Shyamalan seemed to care about the original story and characters in which this movie was inspired.
Maybe for that reason, my disappointment was bigger when I finally saw the big mess this movie is: Not only the movie was completely devoid of all the fun of the original series (While the animated series had plenty of serious and epic scenes, it also had lots of comedy, having a good balance of drama, action and humor) but also fails miserably as a big "epic" film, having lots of cheesy scenes and dialogues.
Some of them are unintentionally hilarious (Such as the infamous line "We need to show them that we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in their beliefs") but sadly, most of the movie is boring, dull and lame, with uninteresting (and poorly made) action scenes, and equally unimpressive special effects (Being only slightly better than horrible films as "Dragonball: Evolution") The performances aren't very good either: Most of them are bland and forgettable, with the main kid characters looking either boring or indifferent to any situation. The Only exception was Dev Patel, which makes an incredibly over the top performance as the Prince Zuko, practically screaming most of his lines.
But despite all that, the biggest flaw of this movie is that is unspeakably boring, and despite the absurd stupidity and cheesiness of some the lines and the action scenes, most of this film feels tedious and endless, without any single bit of tension or at least, something that could make the viewers care about the story and the characters.
To summarize: M.Night Shyamalan turned "Avatar: The Last Airbender" into a weird combination between "Twilight" and "Dragonball: Evolution", managing to make a movie which is even worse than his previous films such as "The Lady in the Water" "The Happening". And that's saying something.
Well, at least the fans will always have good memories about the original show. No matter how bad this movie was, it didn't make me like less "Avatar:The Last Airbender", which always will be remembered as one of the best animated shows ever made, while this movie will be quickly forgotten.
0/10
To be honest, I really had big hopes for this movie, mostly because, despite the fact that his movies seem to get worse and worse as time goes by, I still had some bits of faith on M. Night Shyamalan: After all "The Sixth Sense" was great, "Unbreakable" was interesting. But also, the animated show in which this movie was (loosely) based had a great story, with a pretty good character/plot development, with many virtues to exploit.
This was a perfect chance for Shyamalan to show that he didn't lost his touch (And also, that he wasn't one trick pony)Also, unlike most of the directors responsible for lame live actions version of cartoons (Such as Tim Hill or Raja Gosnell) Shyamalan seemed to care about the original story and characters in which this movie was inspired.
Maybe for that reason, my disappointment was bigger when I finally saw the big mess this movie is: Not only the movie was completely devoid of all the fun of the original series (While the animated series had plenty of serious and epic scenes, it also had lots of comedy, having a good balance of drama, action and humor) but also fails miserably as a big "epic" film, having lots of cheesy scenes and dialogues.
Some of them are unintentionally hilarious (Such as the infamous line "We need to show them that we believe in our beliefs as much as they believe in their beliefs") but sadly, most of the movie is boring, dull and lame, with uninteresting (and poorly made) action scenes, and equally unimpressive special effects (Being only slightly better than horrible films as "Dragonball: Evolution") The performances aren't very good either: Most of them are bland and forgettable, with the main kid characters looking either boring or indifferent to any situation. The Only exception was Dev Patel, which makes an incredibly over the top performance as the Prince Zuko, practically screaming most of his lines.
But despite all that, the biggest flaw of this movie is that is unspeakably boring, and despite the absurd stupidity and cheesiness of some the lines and the action scenes, most of this film feels tedious and endless, without any single bit of tension or at least, something that could make the viewers care about the story and the characters.
To summarize: M.Night Shyamalan turned "Avatar: The Last Airbender" into a weird combination between "Twilight" and "Dragonball: Evolution", managing to make a movie which is even worse than his previous films such as "The Lady in the Water" "The Happening". And that's saying something.
Well, at least the fans will always have good memories about the original show. No matter how bad this movie was, it didn't make me like less "Avatar:The Last Airbender", which always will be remembered as one of the best animated shows ever made, while this movie will be quickly forgotten.
0/10
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